The Fifth Marian Dogma

On this day of the "Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord", this was an interesting article.

Cardinals Lead - Time fro Us to Follow

March 30, 2008

Over the course of the last few weeks, several events have taken place which one could rightly interpret as significant steps leading towards a potential definition of a fifth Marian Dogma of the Spiritual Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On January 11, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI released his 2008 World Day of the Sick Address for February 11, in which he presented his strongest teaching to date on Our Lady's coredemptive role with Jesus at Calvary. The Holy Father states:

For this reason, Mary is a model of total self-abandonment to God's will: she received in her heart the eternal Word and she conceived it in her virginal womb; she trusted in God and, with her soul pierced by a sword (cf. Lk 2:35), she did not hesitate to share the Passion of her Son, renewing on Calvary at the foot of the Cross her "yes" of the Annunciation. ... Associated with the Sacrifice of Christ, Mary, Mater Dolorosa, who at the foot of the Cross suffers with her divine Son, is felt to be especially near by the Christian community, which gathers around its suffering members who bear the signs of the passion of the Lord. Mary suffers with those who are in affliction, with them she hopes, and she is their comfort, supporting them with her maternal help. And is it not perhaps true that the spiritual experience of very many sick people leads us to understand increasingly that "the Divine Redeemer wishes to penetrate the soul of every sufferer through the heart of his holy Mother, the first and the most exalted of all the redeemed"? (John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, n. 26)

On February 8, 2008, five cardinals release a press statement regarding their January 1, 2008 letter to every cardinal and bishop of the world, in which they invite the world's prelates to join them in their petition to Pope Benedict XVI to solemnly define as dogma the role of the blessed Virgin Mary as the Spiritual Mother of humanity under its three essential roles as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces and Advocate. These five cardinals — their Eminences Telesphore Cardinal Toppo, Luis Cardinal Aponte Martínez, Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, and Ernesto Cardinal Corripio Ahumada — enclosed the following votum (or petition) and invited each cardinal and bishop to sign and to forward to the Holy Father:

Your Holiness, Benedict XVI, ... MORE...